Adult Back-up Care: A call center and referral program that links employees with responsibilities for eldercare or care of an adult dependent to screened in-home care providers during mild illnesses, recovery from medical procedures, sudden changes in adults’ or elders’ needs, or when regular plans fall through.

APA recognized that eldercare responsibilities can affect an employee’s productivity and anxiety levels. Additionally, the implementation of an eldercare program was regarded as an incentive for potential new hires.

Response implemented

Project Highlights

The Adult Back-up Care program is component of the eldercare services that are provided to APA by Bright Horizons, a vendor who also provides APA’s child care services. The back-up care is the only specific eldercare programming that APA has in place at this time.

The main features of the program include:

Easily accessed online or through the call center.

Services are available 24/7/365.

The vendor screens the in-home care providers.

Able to assist adults and elders with special needs.

Services are available during mild illnesses, recovery from medical procedures, sudden changes in adults’ or elders’ needs, or when regular plans fall through.

APA pays an annual fee for the program; employees are responsible for paying the co-pays for using the service.

In addition to the Adult Back-up Care program, APA employees who have elder and adult care responsibilities are also have access to:

Counseling and information and referral services.

Expanded FMLA options, including 16 weeks of family leave and 16 weeks of personal leave in a 24 month period.

Use of vacation days to attend to caregiving responsibilities.

Outcomes

APA has not evaluated the program or surveyed employees about their experience. However, employees who have utilized the service have commented on how helpful the program is. Since its implementation, very few employees have used the program. Currently, there are 16 employees registered for adult back-up care services, and only 1 utilization of the program for the period of June 2012 – May 2013.

Steps to plan and implement

The eldercare program designed for APA employees began three years ago. The association had discussed the possibility of starting an eldercare benefit prior to that time, but there did not seem to be a strong demand for it. After several requests for services were made to the HR Department, the issues related to eldercare were taken more seriously.

APA contracts with a vendor, Bright Horizons, to provide a variety of employee assistance benefits. The vendor promotes the Adult Back-up Care service at the annual employee benefits workshop. They also send out printed materials during the open enrollment periods. Information about the program is also available on the internet and posted in the lunch-rooms. New hires are given information.

Registration is required.

In-Home Adult Care is $6.00 per hour with a 4-hour minimum, additional charges may apply for medical care or for evening/weekend care.

Employees get 20 days per dependent per year.

Age feature

APA’s Adult Back-up Care program is available to employees of all ages who are responsible for the care of an older family member or an adult dependent.

Moving forward

APA will use employee feedback and information to determine what is needed by the employees. If the cost were not an issue, APA would like to increase the number of days available for Adult Back-up Care services.

Additional information

For additional information, contact The Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College: age.work@bc.edu